Im equal parts hopeful and terrified of a potential Assassins Creed Black
Flag remake heres what I need Ubisoft to change, and what should be left alone entirely

Date:
Mon, 19 Jan 2026 17:14:43 +0000

Description:
As Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake rumors gather speed, I'm looking at the things I want to see Ubisoft change in a potential remake. Also, some aspects that I want left out of it entirely.

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The anticipated Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag remake is perhaps the
worst-kept secret in gaming right now. News of Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced (rumored to be the official title) has been surfacing regularly over the last year or so, and with developer Ubisoft having now re-uploaded the games entire soundtrack for no apparent reason, its essentially a foregone conclusion that a remake announcement is imminent.

And while Im certainly happy at the prospect of jumping back into one of the best Assassin's Creed games ever made, Im not entirely convinced that Black Flag is in need of a remake, certainly not over older games like Assassins Creed and Assassins Creed 2 .

Ubisoft has yet to announce anything official about the Black Flag remake, though rumors point to some significant changes being made to the original version of the game. Heres what Id like to see changed in a potential redo, and some things that I absolutely, under no circumstances, want Ubisoft to include. The tempest (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ive not quite been sold on the last few Assassins Creed games, finding both Valhalla and Shadows to be lacking in the parkour, story, and world design departments. That doesnt mean that a potential Black Flag remake shouldnt ignore the modern games entirely, however.

Shadows , in particular, is an absolute industry leader in weather and environmental effects. The seasonal changes, the heavy rain, snow, and sleet the dynamic weather in Shadows is brilliant in how it ties into gameplay, and it would be absolutely stunning when applied to Black Flags West Indies.

Black Flag s setting was really ahead of its time, especially with regard to its large oceans and water effects. Now imagine how a proper dynamic weather system could tie into sailing, exploration, and more.

Tempestuous storms and rolling fog would seriously up the ante for ship combat, as would more modern particle effects for cannon-fire and sea spray. If I could choose one thing for a Black Flag remake to plunder from Shadows , it would absolutely be the dynamic weather. Hardcore parkour (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Modern Assassins Creed titles approach parkour in a completely different way than the first six games in the franchise.

I loaded up Black Flag recently, and spent half an hour or so running just around the rooftops of Havana. Parkour still feels surprisingly good. Its lightning fast, dynamic, and most importantly, it leaves plenty of control in the hands of the player.

You see, parkour is too heavily automated in recent games. The animations are better than theyve ever been, but the actual moment-to-moment flow of the movement is more restrictive, and you dont really have all that much control in how you move from point A to point B.

Im worried that Ubisoft might be about to crowbar modern parkour systems into Black Flag . They actually did something similar already with Assassins Creed Mirage .

That game, despite being an homage to the first Assassins Creed , features parkour thats secretly just a tweaked version of Valhallas . This does not work at all in the confines of Baghdad, a city that is supposed to evoke the bustling locales of the first three Assassins Creed games. The result is a slow and far too streamlined system that pales in comparison to the parkour
of games that came out nearly 20 years ago.

Post-launch updates to both Shadows and Mirage have improved things significantly, but its all made one thing very clear to me: Black Flag s parkour does not need replacing, it just needs updating and refining.

Cleaner animations and an updated control scheme are all that a remake of Black Flag really needs to have. Freedom Cry (Image credit: Ubisoft)

I look back quite fondly on Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag - Freedom Cry , though Ill be the first to admit that its nowhere near the best DLC weve had in the Assassins Creed universe. A potential Black Flag remake does raise the question as to whether Freedom Cry needs to be brought along for the ride. Im going to be somewhat controversial and say that no, it really doesnt.

Now, having replayed Freedom Cry recently, Im here to tell you that you probably do not want to play a straight-up remake of it as much as you think you do.

The story is great, the blunderbuss and machete weapons are fun enough, but the actual structure, the gameplay, and feel of the DLC are seriously
lacking. The majority of the missions are tailing ones (more on that later), and the ship combat is really just more of the same from the base game. I would much rather see Freedom Cry protagonist Adwals role expanded and folded into Black Flag .

While the events of Freedom Cry do take place after Black Flag has ended, Adwal could have a much larger, more prominent role in the Black Flag remake.

Give Adwal his own missions that borrow from the Freedom Cry playbook and plot, and have the story side of Freedom Cry play out as post-game content.
Id love to see some of Freedom Cry be incorporated here, but simply tacking
on a remade Freedom Cry onto the Black Flag package? Its just not going to be worthwhile.

Its worth noting here that we have never seen an Assassins Creed remake before. We have no idea whether Ubisoft intends to follow the plot and structure of the original, or do something like the Resident Evil series and establish a completely new version of events. Id quite like to see the
latter, as itd allow for characters like Adwal to be fleshed out and given more prominent roles. Chasing its tail (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Many of us look back on games like Black Flag through rose-tinted glasses. It is an undoubtedly fantastic game, and one that really stands out in the
series for being something completely unique when compared to what came before.

The problem is that broader memory of Black Flag , the one that evokes snapshots of thrilling ship battles, hair-raising stealth, and larger-than-life supporting characters, isnt quite the full picture.

Black Flag does not feature the mission structure weve come to expect of modern AC games, and its particularly plagued by tailing missions. These are
a much-maligned part of the Assassins Creed franchise, and fairly so. Black Flag , and Assassins Creed 3 before it, are the worst offenders for having players slowly tail a target for the duration of a main mission. Its always dull, and during a replay, its quite surprising just how often it crops up.

Black Flag has possibly the worst implementation of a tailing mission in the entire series, as well as one where you tail a ship while sailing the Jackdaw in a swamp.

These either need to be reworked completely or taken out of the game. Modern entries like Assassins Creed Shadows handle tailing quite well by giving players more stealth options when approaching a target, or by giving them the choice to kill a tail early and track down the info theyre hiding later on.

This is one area of Black Flag that I think needs modernizing entirely, and please, dont make me do ship stealth, it simply doesnt work. Thats quite enough loot (Image credit: Ubisoft)

According to a particular Black Flag remake rumor, the game will lean into loot and gear stats for Edward Kenways arsenal, likely in the same way as
weve seen in the modern games.

Personally, I cannot stand constantly picking up slightly higher-level loot items of the same kind, and I much prefer the older AC games approaches to bespoke weapons and simple upgrade trees.

Black Flag does not need the same role-playing game (RPG) treatment first utilized in Origins , nor does it need bloated enemy healthbars and damage numbers. The combat in Black Flag is fast, brutal, and simple, though it definitely fits the protagonist better than having a slew of legendary swords and pistols constantly thrown into a players inventory.

This is a pirate game, however, so a better loot variety would be welcome. What I really dont want to see is the same loot system as employed in Shadows , where I have 20 katanas of varying levels, each one as forgettable as the last.

Its very likely that Ubisoft will incorporate some of the more RPG-heavy systems seen in recent games when designing a Black Flag remake. A skill tree could be great, and expanding crafting would fit with the treasure-hunting setting. All in all, however, turning Black Flag into a full-on RPG would be
a mistake, one that would introduce a whole heap of the very issues that have made modern Assassins Creed games so uneven and sometimes even difficult to recommend.

Ubisoft needs to walk a very fine line between old and new here, especially with a game as beloved as Black Flag . The trick will be to modernize aging control schemes and world design while preserving the originals focus. Easing off on the urge to fill the remake with sprawling RPG loot systems will be key.

Well have to wait and see whether Black Flag is indeed getting a remake. All signs point to yes, but its important to note that Ubisoft has never acknowledged the remakes existence, nor has it commented on the recent rumors and leaks.

Hopefully, Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced sticks closely to the original game, as its still a fantastic entry into the Assassins Creed series, and one that inspired countless games in its wake.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/gaming/im-equal-parts-hopeful-and-terrified-of-a-pot ential-assassins-creed-black-flag-remake-heres-what-i-need-ubisoft-to-change-a nd-what-should-be-left-alone-entirely


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